Tracing Steps
by motermouth28
Summary: during a quest the hunt finds thilia knocked unconsience and with amneshia and while they are trying to jog her memory, it is up to percy to find the mysterious attacker before its to late.  yaoifan101 helped with this story
1. Chapter 1

_Standing here on Mount Olympus, the moon and the stars resting above me, the wind blowing through my hair, and swords clashing as the battle rages on around me. With every second that goes by my energy fades and it is as if my life is flashing before me._

….

My eyes shot open and I bolted upright, I sat there in a cold sweat with no energy what-so-ever. Although I was awake I still felt troubled. Not only troubled by the dream I had but, I felt as though something was wrong. As I sat in school I tried to ignore the feeling until I realized that it was still bothering me when I got home. So I headed for camp half-blood. When I got there I saw Annabeth. I had been upset all-day because of that dream but when I saw those stormy-gray eyes, the fear and confusion just disappeared. But I couldn't get distracted, I had to talk to Chiron. So I walked to the big house and met up with Chiron. And to my surprise Zoe Nightshade was standing there she turned as if she was going to say something but befor she could say a thing two words came out of my mouth, "I Know"


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm not exactly sure how I knew but I just felt that it had something to do with thilia. There was a silence in the room. Just then Chiron broke in, "Ah, Percy what exactly do you know?" **

"**It's Thilia isn't it?" I responded. **

**He sighed the responded, "Yes." **

"**What happened?" **

**Just then Zoe broke in, " we where on a quest and she wandered of, by the time we found her it was to late she was unconscious and her attacker was nowhere to be seen." **

**I was speechless, trying to process everything all at once but it seemed impossible. But after a minute I spoke, " Where were you when this happened?" **

" **We were in the woods looking for artimis and thilia just wandered off in her own direction," she replied. **

" **Did you find artimis before you found thilia?" **

" **No, artimis is still missing." at that I walked out of the big house and headed for the beach. To my surprise Annabeth was standing. I didn't notice her until I bumped into her. "Oh! Hey Annabeth, what are you doing here?" I said in surprise. **

"**I don't know, I had a feeling you would come here and I had to ask you something." **

"**yeah?" **

" **did you find out what happened with thilia?" **

" **yeah, why?" **

" **well Chiron and Zoe wouldn't tell me and I was wondering if you would." **

" **look I don't thing I should tell you." **

" **why not?" **

" **I don't want to worry you." **

" **not knowing worries me more" I finally broke and told her all about what happened to thilia, when I was finished there was silence. Then Annabeth just walked away. **


	3. Chapter 3

No one saw Annabeth for the rest of the night, but that night I had a dream,

…

_I was in a dark room, I started to run but the room seemed endless. Though the room was so silent you could hear a pin fall. but I felt a presence in the room. _

…

I woke to a knock on my cabin door, it was Grover. "Percy! Percy? You in there?"

"Yeah," I moaned, "I'm coming."

"Well hurry, Chiron wants to talk to you." I got out of my bunk, got dressed and headed towards the big house. Me and Grover didn't talk much on the way up there, it was mostly silent. Finally we arrived at the big house. When we arrived Chiron thanked Grover for getting me and turned towards me. "Percy, I have been asked to send three people on a quest to find both Artimis and Thilia's attacker."

" and you want me to be one them?"

" yes, you see I was thinking of sending you and two of the hunters."

" what about Annabeth? She deserves to go."

" Well Percy we have not yet told Annabeth." once he said that my attention turned to the ground. He knew I was hiding something, but just my luck Annabeth charged in demanding a quest to find Thilia's attacker. And Chiron just sighed and looked at me. "Percy, why'd you tell her?" he sounded calm but you could hear anger in his voice.

"She convinced me to tell her."

He directed his attention towards Annabeth, " We have already agreed to send two hunters and Percy." Annabeth looked devastated, before she could speak I chimed in, " Annabeth should go, not me."

" Percy-" Chiron tried but I kept going.

" This quest should go to Annabeth, it means more to her." when I finished for once Chiron was speechless, and Annabeth through her arms around me. She pulled away blushing and Chiron spoke, "Percy, I'm afraid the council f the gods has decided that you must go on this quest Zeus want you to go and that's final."

"Then how 'bout this: Zoë, Annabeth, and me go on the quest?"

"let me think about and I'll get back to you.." With that we headed out. Later I was sitting at the beach and a familiar voice called my name, I turned around to see Annabeth standing there so I got up and walked toward her. "thanks for sticking up for me back there, Seaweed brain."

" no big deal I know how close you and thilia are and so you deserve to go on this quest more than I do." the dinner bell sounded and so we started walking we didn't talk on the way there because it was a short walk, after dinner we met up with Chiron to get our answer. He agreed to me idea and said that we would leave in the morning. I was up all night tossing and turning and when I finally fell asleep I heard a knock on my door. It was Annabeth telling me that we were leaving. When I got to the big house where we said we'd meet Annabeth was standing there and she looked angry. When I got up to her I asked, " where's Zoë?"

"I have no clue, but if she's not here within the next minute then I swear I'll-" she was cut off by Zoë who just happened to walk up behind her, " you'll what?" Zoë asked strictly, but Annabeth just rolled her eyes and turned around, "you finally ready to go?" but before Zoë could respond I cut in, "if you guys can't get along for 2 seconds then how do you expect to complete this quest without killing each other?" niether of them answered and so our quest began.


	4. Chapter 4

Zoë lead the way considering she knew exactly where we were going. So Annabeth and I just stayed back, we decided to camp for the night which again Zoë had covered. When we were all sitting around the fire and just when I was about to mention how shocked I was about not encountering any monsters, a huge Minotaur appeared. We all stood me uncapped Riptide, Annabeth pulled out her knife, and Zoë pulled out her silver bow and arrow. I rolled to left while Annabeth rolled to the right, we each stabbed the minotaur behind its knee on each leg which gave Zoë a clear shot at its chest once the arrow hit the minotaur disincarnated and we went off to bed, we each got our own tent and strangely that night I had not single dream. Zoë was the first one up, Annabeth the second, and me the third. We ate breakfast and continued our quest. There was silence until I finally spoke, "hey Zoë, about how much longer until we actually get there?" 

"Well, about another day." 

"Is there any other, possibly faster way to get there?" 

"Only one that I could think of." she responded. 

"Well? What is it?" 

"Just follow me." we walked for about ten more minutes until we arrived at a beach. Annabeth looked at me, "Ok Seaweed brain your turn." I walked up to the water and willed it to form a boat we all got in and shot towards our destination. The boat was small it had three seats that were big enough to sleep on. We got there that night and decided to camp out. That night I had a dream. 

…. 

_I saw thilia running through the forest. She had dirt all over her face, she was out of breath from running, and she had so much fear on her face. Then I saw her fall to the ground and as her eyes slowly closed so did the dream. _

….

When I woke up Annabeth was just entering the tent to wake me. "Oh! I didn't think you were up.," she said in surprise, "well were leaving in a minute so pack up and come eat. When we were about to head on, we heard a rustling in the woods and I reached for riptide. We all drew our weapons and began to head for the sound. The sun was just rising when we got close to the rustling but as we got closer, we came up to a turn and I turned the opposite way until Annabeth called out "PERCY!" I turned around immediately and headed the right way. We wandered around for hours following the sound but we could never reach it. 

Finally, we gave up and stopped to rest. While I was sitting by the fire with Annabeth it was silent, "hey Percy?" 

"Yeah?" 

"Why did you start walking away from us earlier?" 

"Not sure I was following you guys and my body led me a different way." She did not ask any more questions and we both went off to bed. My dream was odd that night… 

….. 

_All I saw was Hades, he was laughing but not like laughing at a joke, there was pleasure in his laugh but not just pleasure. Evil, you could sense evil in his laugh as if he was torturing someone. Then the image faded and I saw thilia, she was lying in the infirmary deathly still in the background I could still hear Hades laughing and with that, the dream faded. _

….. 

I felt someone slaking me and a familiar voice yelled, "come on Seaweed brain, get up were leaving!" My eyes opened and I was still worried about my dream. What did it mean?__We had a normal day, we hunted all day and when the sun went down, we stopped for camp. However, that dream was the worst yet and I could not stop thinking about it. When Annabeth noticed something was wrong she did not speak with Zoë around so later that night, she came to my tent, "Hey Percy, what's wrong?" 

"Why do you think something's wrong?" I asked turning around. 

"C'mon Percy, I know you well enough to know something's wrong. Can you please tell me?" I got lost in her stormy grey eyes, and without thinking, I told her about all my dreams and how I did not understand it and how it was bothering me. She just nodded until I was done with my rant. "Ok Percy I think I know what happened to thilia," 

She started, "you see Hades has a connection to children of the big three whish makes it more vulnerable to his traps, that's why thilia wandered off just like you, Hades will stop at nothing to be rid of the children of Zeus and Poseidon." 

"So what do we do?" 

"I think we should let you take the lead so we will all be together and so we could reach the threat." once she was done, she got up and left. The next morning we explained things to Zoë and we began our day. With every turn, I made Annabeth and Zoë did the same. We finally arrived at a building that looked reaching higher than Mount Olympus. Something seemed to be pulling me towards the building. When we entered, it was dark and quite. Just like in my dream. It reminded me of being in Labyrinth when Annabeth and I fell through the secret entrance. It was dark and endless but still I took step after step. I uncapped riptide for light. "Of course the one thing Zoë DOESN'T has is a flashlight." I thought. We came up to a wall and I stopped, took one-step forward and the door opened. We entered a bright room when all of the sudden four Minotaur has popped out and attacked us. We each took on one and did our best to distract the other after awhile we finished off the Minotaur's. As we continued through the rooms. We came up to a set of doors. Something was pulling me towards the right door but I also had a feeling that it was trouble. Annabeth broke in, "which way should we go?" 

"Not sure, but I think we should go to the right." Therefore, we went through the right door. As we were walking, I made a sudden stop, "what are you doing?" Zoë asked angrily. 

"Don't you guys hear that?" I asked. 

"Hear what perky?" asked Annabeth. 

"That laughing, it sounds like the laughing in my dream." but we decided to follow the sound. 


	5. Chapter 5

We followed the sound for days and still came to no destination. I was so confused on how I could hear the laughing and none else couldn't. but my thoughts where cut short because Annabeth walked into my tent, "hey seaweed brain, you ok?"

"yeah, I was just thinking."

"well there's a first for everything," she said with a smirk.

"haha, very funny."

"what were you thinking about?"

"I was just wondering how I could hear that laugh and not you or Zoë"

"now that I think about it, Zoë said that thalia was hearing things too. So what do you and thalia have in common?"

"well, were both children of the big three I guess." I said still not sure where she was going with this.

"exactly, so that means whatever is going on has some connection with children of the big three." now I was beginning to understand. "we should get Nico here to test my theory. Percy will you IM him and have him come?"

"AH? Sure" and with that she left the tent and I gathered up the moister in the air and tossed in a drachma (sp?) "Nico Di Angelo." Then an image appeared of a boy about 14 years old, with black hair that went passed his eyebrows, olive skin and dark brown eyes. "Hey Nico!" I yelled to get his attention. He jumped in surprise.

When he turned around he said, "Hey Perce."

"hey, could you come meet us here… although im not sure where we are."

"that's fine Perce, just let me see it and I can shadow travel there. So I moved out of the way and the next thing I knew was Nico popping up behind me. I explained our situation to Nico and he just stood there and listened, occasionally nodding his head. When I finished telling all about what has happened these few days and about Annabeth theories. "so what d you want me to do?"

"we just need you to stay here for a few days and see if you hear what I hear."

"ok I guess I can do that but what happens if I cant hear the sound?"

"I don't really know I guess well cross that bridge when we come to it, you should get some rest your tent is the one right next to mine."

"ok night Perce."

"night," I said as he walked out of the tent. When I woke up the next morning. I was surprised that Nico was already at the camp fire. When I walked over Annabeth and Nico greeted me but of course Zoë said nothing because she was still upset that another boy was added to the quest. I paid no attention to her sour mood. When we were all done eating and getting ready we resumed our and when we got going I started hearing the laugh again nico heard it to. "nico what do you hear?"

"I hear laughing and something pulling me over here," he replied as he pointed to his left which coincidently was the same way I was being tempted to go.

"So what do we do?" I asked looking at Annabeth.

"Same as yesterday, we follow you and Nico and see where it leads us." so we did as she said and just tried our best to stay alert. (which wasn't that hard considering our ADHD.) after about three hours of walking the laughing was getting louder. And I could tell that Nico heard it to…

A/N sorry it took so long to update, school just started and I haven't had much time, plus I have some writers block so if you have any ideas for the next chapter please share it with me….and…. Review!


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